When A Playboy Loves

|| 65.

King
I felt betrayed. Angry. And confused. Of all the things that could come up, it was this. A whole new other extension of her, something she never mentioned. I flicked my gaze over Esther colouring in the centre of the living room. Her eyes lifted to mine and Uti's words returned to me.

Was it something so bad I couldn't forgive?

With Uti, my wife, I could and would forgive everything. I strolled to Esther and mimicked her position. She was colouring a caricature of... Me? I took her hand and she looked up.

The television was playing in the background but the sound faded once we began talking. I peeked over her shoulder. "Do you remember the person who gave you that note?"

She shook her head. "Nope. He was wearing a cap." Esther made a motion of pulling an invisible cap over her head and I realised she meant a face cap. The coward who gave her the note was wearing a face cap to protect his identity. "I couldn't really see his face."

I had already sent Oz a message to see what he could find but it was of no point. My mind strayed between the coward witness and Umoh. Would he go that far to shut us up?

"Do you miss school?" She nodded. I inched closer to her, arms brushing her sides and she relaxed into me, back propped against my chest. If anyone told me we would grow this close, I wouldn't have believed them. "We are going to change your school, you hear? For now, mummy will be teaching you from home."

She threw me a wary look over her shoulder. "But I don't want to change my school."

"You have to, rainbow." Those beautiful grey eyes latched onto my dull ones and I patted my lap for her to sit. Esther didn't need a second invitation. I pushed the beaded ends of her hair falling over her forehead behind her ear. "Some bad guys are trying to hurt us. Me. You and mummy. If you keep going there, anything might happen. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, okay? I love you."

My heart galloped as the words departed my lips. It was my first time of telling it to her. And I meant it. I still wanted to adopt her. To make her fully my daughter. Esther threw her arms around my neck and hid her face in the curve of my shoulder.

"I love you, Uncle King."

My belly clenched. I stroked her back, laughing when she released a content sigh. From my side eye, I caught a glimpse of Junior strolling into the living room with his laptop in one hand. He had been loitering around since Faith arrived. Sitting cross-legged on the floor me, Junior carried a sleeping Esther from me, then handed over his laptop.

"Thanks."

"No biggie," he answered. A minute or two or three passed. He tapped me with his free arm but I wasn't in the mood for playing. I skimmed through the content on his screen, barely processing the words in front of me. Tired of annoying me without getting a reaction, he asked, "What are you thinking?"

I shrugged. I didn't know who or how to tell him. He nudged me with his shoulder and I dragged my attention from the television. I waited for him to drop Esther on the couch. When Junior did, he sat close to me, our legs almost touching. We stared at Esther for a bit. She was calm, an emotion that was far from me.

"What's going on?" Junior asked. "Any updates?"

"Yeah. Plenty." The boys already knew who the culprit was, who his father was and Uti's former relationship with them. My fingers ran in circle around my temples. I closed my eyes as I told him about the video of Umoh's father that Uti showed me. The note Esther received from school and he cursed. When it was time to tell him about her stripping, the words locked in my throat. "Junior, what if..."

"What if, what?" Junior shifted position so he was directly in front of me. I laughed when he patted my knees in quiet encouragement.

We weren't so touchy so this was awkward. I shifted my gaze to the laptop. Uti's fashion homepage was on it. We had stopped taking orders for new clothes. Vincent, her former boss had helped with the last orders and I didn't want to stress him anymore. I gazed at Junior, contemplating my next choice of words.